USABle -- A Communication Framework for Ubiquitous Systems

The widespread use of mobile devices is reshaping the way users interact, allowing applications to explore physical proximity of devices to offer intelligent services. Although there are several communication technologies available (e.g., Wi- Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, LTE, UMTS, Bluetooth, NFC), building an application from scratch considering both communication and application requirements is not a trivial task. In order to help developers to implement communication primitives, this paper presents a communication framework for ubiquitous systems called USABle. Two important contributions of this framework can be highlighted: i) a set of technology-independent interfaces to handle communication requirements; and ii) a modular and extensible layer-based architecture that permits developers to implement new communication technologies and message dissemination strategies. The outcome of using this communication framework is a simpler way to build applications that explore physical proximity. To validate the claims presented in this paper, a performance evaluation using real devices is done, analyzing two multi-hop and three carry-and-forward implementations of routing algorithms that were implemented using the USABle framework.